Saturday, April 28, 2012

Analyze this

Just read an article about a study which roughly correlates
analytical ability to less religiosity - atheists all over the world must be
celebrating. They now have a way to feel superior to religious people. Because
religious people are the people who can’t analyze things, right? I mean, there
are so many inconsistencies in religion; surely the only way a person could
believe would be because they couldn’t analyze. Aha, that’s why religion
doesn’t make any sense!

I doubt it though. There’s something more to the picture
than religious people being stupid. It’s too easy to say religious people can’t
analyze and leave it at that. When has life ever been black-and-white like
that?

I have an idea as to why religious people believe in all
those obvious inconsistencies.

First, religion has gotten mixed up with spirituality. The
two are not the same. Religion is an attempt to codify the nameless by rules
and absolutes - thou shall not do this or that, this God is the one true God,
our prophet the true prophet, our way is better than your way. On the other
hand, spirituality is…well… it’s hard to say what spirituality is. The word
sacred comes to mind - if you know sacredness, you know spirituality. And people immediately recognize the feelings
of spirituality - sacredness, beauty, flow, harmony – as right somehow.

But…those feelings of sacredness, of beauty, of flow – they
don’t arise from analyzing. You don’t analyze a tree and then connect with it. Connection
happens spontaneously, without effort. It simply arises.

So in the beginning we experience a spiritual feeling. It
arose spontaneously and feels good. That’s the spiritual part.

We humans want to feel those pleasurable feelings more often
and create a structure around those feelings. This is perfectly natural and
there are many different structures. Christianity is one. Zoroastrianism is
another.

Religion enters the picture with ignorance. When ignorantly believe
our structures are the right structures. When we believe our rules are the
right ones. When we believe spirituality can only be experienced via this
particular structure, this particular mode of thought. And most of all, when we
believe spiritual feelings are true. Religion enters the picture with
absolutes.

So, where were we? Oh, yes, analytical ability. Who needs to
analyze when they have the truth?